# Asylum Seekers# Immigration Court

Rumors of Asylum’s Death Have Been Greatly (Somewhat? Slightly?) Exaggerated

In a recent announcement, the White House stated that asylum grant rates have “collapsed” in Immigration Court. “Under President Trump,” the announcement continues, “asylum is now granted in just 7% of cases — a historic low, plummeting from over 50% rubber-stamped under Biden.” Is this the end of asylum as we know it? In the immortal words of that great Twentieth Century philosopher Monty Python: “I’m not quite dead.”

It is true that asylum grant rates have fallen significantly since President Trump took office, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story, and here we’ll look at what’s happening in Immigration Court and how the overall negative trend might apply to an individual asylum case.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylees and Refugees# Asylum Seekers

USCIS Memo Seeks to Limit Adjustment of Status; How Does This Affect Asylees, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers?

Last week, USCIS issued a Policy Memorandum stating that adjustment of status (i.e., obtaining a Green Card inside the United States) is an “extraordinary” form of relief and is only available to non-citizens as a “matter of discretion and administrative grace.” The memo reminds USCIS officers that with limited exceptions, “aliens” who arrive in the U.S. on non-immigrant visas “are generally expected to pursue an immigrant visa and admission from outside the United States if they wish to reside permanently in this country.”

While people who come to the U.S. on a non-immigrant visa and who later pursue AOS may be “otherwise eligible for adjustment of status,” their “attempt to avoid the ordinary consular immigrant visa process, usually accompanied by their violation of our immigration laws are adverse factors that the aliens may need ‘to offset… by a showing of unusual or even outstanding equities.'” “The absence of adverse factors, by itself, does not demonstrate such unusual or outstanding equities.”

The import of all this is that USCIS wants most people who come to the U.S. on non-immigrant visas to leave the United States and obtain their Green Card overseas through consular processing. How does this new memo apply to asylees, refugees, and people with pending asylum applications?

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylees and Refugees# Asylum# International

The Administration’s Attack on I-730 Petitions

A few months ago, the Trump Administration instituted two travel bans, blocking nationals of 39 countries from coming to the United States. The bans explicitly stated that they would not apply to “an individual who has been granted asylum by the United States.” Commentators generally agreed (hoped?) that the bans would not apply to asylee or refugee “follow to join” dependents, since they were either coming to the U.S. in the same status as the principal applicant, or–if they were already in the United States–were obtaining asylum through USCIS.

Unfortunately, recent developments have proved said commentators wrong. The Administration has been preventing asylee and refugee dependents from banned countries from coming to the U.S. or obtaining status here.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Office# Asylum Seekers# Immigration

New Tool to Monitor USCIS’s Progress (or Lack Thereof)

The American Immigration Council (AIC) has a new web page that collects and organizes statistical information from USCIS. The data spans the period from FY2016 through FY2025 (October 2015 through September 2025), and covers most areas of immigration: humanitarian, family-based, employment, and work permits, among others. Organizing USCIS data this way reveals some interesting patterns, and may help set expectations for people with pending cases.

To fully appreciate the data, it’s worth spending some time on the AIC web page. Here, we’ll examine a few of the trends revealed by AIC, with an emphasis on asylum and asylum-adjacent applications.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylees and Refugees# Immigration

Green Card Processing for Asylees Is Down 95% Since President Trump Took Office

A new report from the Cato Institute found that USCIS under the Trump Administration has slashed overall Green Card processing by about 50%. Certain categories of Green Card applicants–including asylees and refugees–have been hit much harder.

The reason for the slowdown is not entirely clear, as USCIS has been reticent to share much information about its operations. Today, we’ll talk about what we do know and how asylees and other Green Card applicants are being affected.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Office# Asylum Seekers

New–and Dangerous–Questions at the Asylum Office

Recently, we’ve been seeing some unusual questions during asylum interviews. Applicants are being asked about their views of America and of Jewish people. They are asked about their finances and community involvement, whether they attend religious services, and their family ties to the United States.

Since this is the Trump Administration, you can probably guess that the new questions are not designed to make life easier for asylum seekers. Here, we’ll look at what’s changed and why, and discuss how to prepare for this aspect of your interview.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Office# Asylum Seekers# Immigration# National Security

USCIS Ends Some “Holds,” Including on Certain Asylum Seekers

Last December, USCIS announced that it had “halted all asylum decisions” until it could “ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.” Various other applications were also halted in the name of national security for individuals from the 39 “banned” countries.

Now, in a rare bit of good news from the Trump Administration, USCIS has issued an update indicating that some holds have been lifted for asylum seekers and others. The Agency has not provide much detail, but here, we’ll see what we can glean from this most recent announcement.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Office# Asylum Seekers# Credible Fear# Detention# Immigration Court

Affirmative Asylum Cases Dismissed and Sent to Court Without an Interview

One quiet trend that has recently come to light is a new practice at the Asylum Office to dismiss affirmative applications without processing them. The asylum seekers are then subject to “expedited removal” proceedings or otherwise served with a Notice to Appear in Immigration Court. Some are detained. A preliminary evaluation of these dismissals found that many were improper under the law.

Here, we’ll examine this new development, look at who is affected, and discuss how to prepare for the possibility that your case will be dismissed by the Asylum Office.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum# Asylum Seekers

A German Right-Wing Influencer Has Requested Asylum in the U.S. Does She Have a Case?

This post is by Ben Harville, an immigration attorney in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His practice includes family-based immigration, employment-based immigration, asylum, humanitarian relief, citizenship, and removal/deportation defense. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he teaches Immigration Law.

Last year, Naomi Seibt became the first person to request asylum under the Trump Administration’s new refugee priorities, which prioritize applications made by white South Africans and right-wing Europeans. Ms. Seibt gained international prominence in 2019 as the “anti-Greta Thunberg”: a young, Northern European woman who was outspokenly skeptical of man-made climate change. In recent years, she has expanded her focus to include critiques of the German government’s approach to immigration, gender, and other culture-war issues (a typical recent post: “Muslims in Germany will outbreed white Christians. If you don’t think that is horrifying, you are not worthy of the free West that our ancestors fought for”). She is also an outspoken supporter of the right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AFD). Because of these political beliefs, she claims, the German government will persecute her if she returns to her homeland. 

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By Jason Dzubow